Making Effective Decisions Grade 7 Example — 500-Word Statement

SI head a delivery unit of 45 staff running a £1.2m employability programme across four workstreams. Mid-year, two things changed at once: demand for the employer-engagement workstream was running 30% above forecast, while the department signalled that our underspend might be clawed back in the autumn spending exercise. I had one month to propose a revised allocation before the mid-year review.

TAs the accountable budget holder, I had to decide how to reallocate up to £400,000 between the four workstreams, protecting frontline delivery while keeping the programme within its agreed outcomes, headcount and contractual commitments to partners.

AI set out to make the decision defensible to our finance director and our delivery partners, not just fast. First I established the evidence base. I asked each workstream lead for updated demand forecasts and unit costs, and had our analyst reconcile them against actual referral data from the first two quarters. This showed the employer-engagement surge was structural, driven by three large local employers joining the programme, not a blip. I then tested three options. Option one was to hold the original allocation and manage demand with a waiting list, which protected other workstreams but risked missing our annual target by around 200 job outcomes. Option two was to fund the surge by pausing a marketing workstream whose own data showed only a 4% conversion rate. Option three was a proportional trim of 8% across all four workstreams, which felt fair but would have weakened delivery everywhere without fully funding anywhere. I modelled each against our contracted outcomes, and option two clearly delivered most value, but it carried a risk: the marketing contract had a three-month notice clause that could cost £35,000 to exit. Before committing, I stress-tested my reasoning. I asked finance to verify the exit cost, consulted our two largest delivery partners about their capacity to absorb growth, and sounded out the department's programme sponsor informally to check a reallocation would be supported rather than read as poor planning. The exit cost came back at £18,000, not £35,000, which settled it. I decided to move £340,000 into employer engagement, close the marketing workstream with an orderly wind-down, and hold £60,000 as a contingency for the clawback risk. I presented the decision to our programme board with the demand data, the options appraisal and the risks on one page, and gave the marketing supplier six weeks' notice with support to redeploy their two embedded staff. I also built in a quarterly review point so the reallocation could be adjusted if demand fell away.

RThe board endorsed the reallocation without amendment. The programme exceeded its annual target by 12%, delivering 1,180 job outcomes, the clawback risk did not materialise, and the contingency covered an unexpected IT cost of £22,000. The two redeployed supplier staff stayed with the programme. The finance director later cited the one-page options appraisal as a model for other units, and I was asked to present the approach at the department's delivery leaders forum.